As our country tries to heal from the effects and impact of COVID, some Chinese scientists are now manipulating the Ebola virus. Protect us, heavenly Father!

From Daily Mail. Chinese scientists have engineered a virus with parts of Ebola in a lab that killed a group of hamsters.

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A team of researchers at Hebei Medical University used a contagious disease of livestock and added a protein found in Ebola, which allows the virus to infect cells and spread throughout the human body.

The group of hamsters that received the lethal injection ‘developed severe systemic diseases similar to those observed in human Ebola patients,’ including multi-organ failure,’ the study shared. …

While the experiment may spark fears of another lab leak, the researchers say their goal was to find the right animal models that can safely mimic Ebola symptoms in a lab setting.

The study suggested that infected hamsters could be a decent model for studying the spread and treatment of Ebola in the future.

Ebola needs to be handled in Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facilities which are special high security laboratories, while many are only BLS-2.

To work around this in a lower security setting, scientists used a different virus called vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which they engineered to carry part of the Ebola virus that’s called glycoprotein (GP) that plays a crucial role in helping the virus enter and infect cells of its host. …

The team concluded that the infected hamsters showed a rapid onset of symptoms, shock liver, systemic infection, and developed severe systemic diseases similar to those observed in human EBOV patients.

They also noted that the experiments provided a rapid preclinical evaluation of medical countermeasures against Ebola under BLS-2 conditions, concluding the study was a success.

The last major outbreak of the virus occurred from 2014 to 2016 in several West African countries was deadly, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

During those two years more than 28,600 people were reportedly infected, and about 11,300 died. …

‘The surrogate virus and matched hamster EVD [Ebola virus disease] model will improve the security and economy of the research in the EBOV field,’ the researchers wrote in the study. …

What do you think of this study? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

(Excerpt from Daily Mail. Photo Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)